www.makemkv.com

Posted: **Fri Jul 24, 2026 7:09 pm**

Hi there !

So this is my first post after discovering MakeMKV in 2024 when I purchased a license do back up my growing blu-ray collection.

I also have been collecting optical drives by crawling local second-hand platforms, with a focus on slimline drives because I had a project to build a very compact 6-8 drive ripping rig automated with ARM (which I will post about shortly). Now I have ~30 drives, some of which are BDXL-compatible but not UHD-friendly that I'm wondering whether they can be (cross-)flashed to become so.

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Vendor    Product reference  Form factor    Tray/Slot-in  Fab. Date  Fw ver.  Interface        Drive platform  
ASUS      SBW-06D2X-U        slim external  Tray          APR2018    1.10     USB mini B       RS8511          (I believe I saw somewhere it could be cross-flashed to UD04)
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE BU20N        slim internal  Tray          APR2015    1.00     Serial ATAPI     MT1959          
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD05     slim external  Top load      OCT2014    3.00     USB micro B 3.0  RS8231          (box model BDR-XD05TB)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD05     slim external  Top load      JUN2018    3.10     USB micro B 3.0  RS8232          (box model BDR-XD05TS)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD07     slim external  Top load      OCT2020    1.03     USB micro B 3.0  RS8D30          (box model BDR-XU07TB)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XU03     slim external  Slot-in       JUL2016    1.03     USB micro B 3.0  RS8520          (box model BDR-XU03T)
PIONEER   BDR-UD03           slim external  Tray          UNK        1.14     USB-C (3.0)      RS8511          (Verbatim slimline)

In testing they all backed up blu-rays with no issue but were unable to recognize UHDs

For reference these are my other drives, in case this information is at all useful for anyone:

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Vendor    Product reference  Rev.  Form factor    Tray/Slot-in  Fab. Date  Fw ver.  Supported media  Interface      Drive platform  
ASUS      BW-16D1HT          UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          NOV2019    3.10     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   MT1959          
ASUS      BW-16D1HT (#2)     UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          2018-01    3.10     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   MT1959          
ASUS      BW-16D1HT (#3)     UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          FEB2016    3.00     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   MT1959          
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE  BH10LS38    UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          2012-02    1.00     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   RS1013          
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE BU40N        UNK   slim internal  Tray          JUL2025    1.03     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   MT1959          
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE BU40N        UNK   slim internal  Tray          APR2025    1.03     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   MT1959          
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE GGW-H20L     UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          FEB2009    YL07-00  BD, HD-DVD, DVD  Serial ATAPI   RS1013          
HL-DT-ST  BDDVDRW CT40N      TD10  slim internal  Tray          MAY2012             BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             
HL-DT-ST  DVDRWBD CA10N      UNK   slim internal  Slot-in       JAN2017    A110     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   RS1013          (branded Streacom ST-OB2)
HP        BD CMB UJ160       1.00  slim internal  Tray          MAY2012    1.00     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             (rebranded Panasonic drive)
HP        BD CMB UJ160       1.00  slim internal  Tray          JUN2012    1.00     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             (rebranded Panasonic drive)
HP        BDDVDRW CT40N      A     slim internal  Tray          OCT2012    BC00     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             
HP        UJ-210             0.90  slim internal  Tray          JUN2008    1.26     BD, DVD          ATAPI (?)      UNK             (weird laptop IDE interface, I used it with an aliexpress USB2 enclosure but it died quickly)
MATSHITA  BD-CMB UJ141AS     UNK   slim external  Tray          MAR2010    1.00     BD, DVD          USB A/C 3.0    UNK             (Panasonic on the label)
MATSHITA  BD-MLT UJ240AS     UNK   slim internal  Tray          JUN2010    1.10     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK         (just died)    
N/A       BD  E  DS6E2SH     UNK   slim internal  Tray          JUN2012    TBC      BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             (unbranded)
N/A       BD E DS4E1S        01    slim internal  Tray          JUN2010    EA2B     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             (dead)
Optiarc   BD ROM BC-5640H    -03   slim internal  Slot-in       AUG2011    1.0A     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   UNK             (branded Sony, I had to repair the shipping-damaged ejection mechanism)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-211M     UNK   5.25 internal  Tray          2017-08    ID60     UHD, BD, DVD     Serial ATAPI   RS8800          
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-UD04     UNK   slim external  Tray          UNK        1.14     UHD, BD, DVD     USB-C (3.0)    RS8A10          
TSSTcorp  BDDVDW SN-506BB    A     slim internal  Tray          FEB2014    SB00     BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   MT1939          
TSSTcorp  DVDWBD SN-406AB    A     slim internal  Tray          OCT2012    06.18    BD, DVD          Serial ATAPI   MT1939

I also have a few more dead drives and this one Buffalo brxl-pt6u2vb-eu (2016) I bought on the off chance it had a BU40N (I saw it somewhere in these forums) but turned out to have a UJ272 inside so I returned it

I meant to contact Billycar11 or Coopervid or another of the usuals for advice on flashing the drives listed in the first table but apparently my account is too new for the privilege so don't hesitate to send me a PM

Cheers

Edit: After doing business with Billy here are the results

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Vendor    Product reference  Form factor    Tray/Slot-in  Fab. Date  Fw ver.  Interface        Drive platform  
ASUS      SBW-06D2X-U        slim external  Tray          APR2018    1.10     USB mini B       RS8511          (Billy doesn't support this model but I tried it anyway with the UD03 auto flasher; now reports as a PIONEER drive BDR-UD04 with fw 1.14 and platform RS8A10 and firmware BDR-US04 ; now it reads UHDs)
HL-DT-ST  BD-RE BU20N        slim internal  Tray          APR2015    1.00     Serial ATAPI     MT1959          (Billy doesn't support this model)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD05     slim external  Top load      OCT2014    3.00     USB micro B 3.0  RS8231          (Used Billy’s auto flasher ; now reports as drive BDR-XD06U with fw 1.11 and platform RS8B30 and firmware BDR-XS06 ; now it reads UHDs)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD05     slim external  Top load      JUN2018    3.10     USB micro B 3.0  RS8232          (Used Billy’s auto flasher ; now reports as drive BDR-XD06U with fw 1.11 and platform RS8B30 and firmware BDR-XS06 ; now it reads UHDs)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XD07     slim external  Top load      OCT2020    1.03     USB micro B 3.0  RS8D30          (Used Billy’s auto flasher ; now reports as drive BDR-XD07U with fw 1.05 and platform RS8D31 and firmware BDR-BDS7 ; now it reads UHDs)
PIONEER   BD-RW BDR-XU03     slim external  Slot-in       JUL2016    1.03     USB micro B 3.0  RS8520          (Billy doesn't support this model)
PIONEER   BDR-UD03           slim external  Tray          UNK        1.14     USB-C (3.0)      RS8511          (Used Billy’s auto flasher ; now reports as drive BDR-UD04 with fw 1.14 and platform RS8A10 and firmware BDR-US04 ; now it reads UHDs)

As far as I've seen the reported serial number hasn't changed for the flashed drives. For now I only tried with a single UHD disc so I'll have to perform more tests to verify if everything's alright.

From what I read in the forums the remaining PIONEER drive has no known flashable firmware and the BU20N is too old (pre-2016) so I'm out of luck on those (It's a shame since slot-in drives are scarce, UHD-capable one exponentially more so)

Posted: **Fri Jul 24, 2026 10:20 pm**

Sure just email me the drive info sections
See below for email

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2026 8:14 am**

Thanks
I've just sent the info

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2026 8:36 am**

emailed
and flasher sent

Posted: **Sat Jul 25, 2026 9:59 am**

My ripping machine project

I hope by sharing my experience here that others don't make the same mistakes I did.

The original idea: A compact, portable, inexpensive drive case I can plug into my computer with minimal amount of cables to rip many discs at once.

The original plan:

Buy

5 slimline blu-ray drives
a USB type-C to 5 SATA ports adapter (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005007258241381.html)
a 5V 10A power supply (https://aliexpress.com/item/33051556213.html) and socket with switch panel (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005008209038658.html)
slimline power adapters (similar to https://aliexpress.com/item/1005010536335852.html)
a power distribution module with switches (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005008356823532.html) to connect the power supply to the adapters

Then build an open frame out of wood and screws.

This plan failed because the USB-to-SATA wasn't compatible with optical drives, probably because its controller was developed with HDDs/SSDs in mind.

2nd plan: Replace the USB-to-SATA controller with one I know supports ODDs and JMB575-based port multipliers, then buy the parts and voilà!

Unfortunately when I plugged more than 1 drive it became extremely unstable so I scrapped the idea.

3rd plan: Purchase an USB3 hub and a bunch of USB2-to-slimline sata (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005006613510336.html), but I had to solder the hub to power the 5V rail from the power supply.

This worked great with up to 3 drives but I ran into an unforeseen limitation: these Initio INIC-1618N based adapters operate on the USB2 bus, which does not share bandwidth with the USB3 bus so I was limited to ~40MB/s, so it wasn't practical for my use.

4th plan: Purchase the USB3 version (same URL as before) of the same adapters

This failed immediately because even though they are based on the Inition INIC-3639PN chip that I believe powers some enclosures of name brands in which they work well, but here the firmware it came with garbled the drive information so MakeMKV (or Windows) couldn't recognise the vendor or model, so UHD-capable drives were couldn't read UHDs and if I remember correctly there was this problem where each had the same ID so you couldn't plug more than one.

5th plan: Purchase an assortment of USB3-to-slimline cases to find a vendor that sells something that works for my use. I made sure to select 5 models that were physically different.

This plan failed because they were all wired on the USB2 bus even though they had a USB3 plug. As far as I know any of those cases that sell below 15USD or that are not from a name brand share the same internal design

6th plan: purchase USB3-to-SATA adapters (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005007933441998.html) and then SATA-to-slimlineSATA adapters (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005010359615708.html)

I remember selecting this USB3-to-SATA adapter because I could confirm it was based on a chpi that supported ODDs explicitely in its documentation but I can't remember why it failed, but I remember abandoning the idea after purchasing a single one si it must have been somehow incompatible.

7th plan: abandon the USB paradigm entirely and just buy a second-hand low-power ITX (small form factor) mainboard with CPU and simply plug the drives into it. I had to replace the power supply with a dual voltage one (https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002986543210.html), and use a PicoPSU and PCI-e SATA controller that I had at hand.

This finally worked but represented a different design that was less like a drive case and more like an independent mini-server, and also having to set up Ubuntu Server and ARM, dealing with issues related to having to set up an Internet connection for it and how to extract the ripped contents, etc.

TL;DR: I spend way too much time and money on a project that was simple at first sight, encountered unending compatibility issues, snake old aliexpress sellers, and more but I had some fun making the wooden case with hand tools.

My advice to those who would like to do something comparable:

- Be wary of USB-to-sata adapters, prefer locally-bought name-brand ones even if they're twice the price because the headaches aren't worth it
- It might be a good idea to integrate vibration-dampening into the design of such a frame because it vibrates a lot when mutiple drives read and it might not be healthy
- Local (as opposed to global; country-specific) marketplaces can be an awesome source of great deals, but also frustrating when the seller only supports in-person delivery and they are far away.
- Be careful with power electronics, wear protection and do research on what is safe to do

To finish up some photo of the (mostly) final build

front.jpg

side.jpg

back.2.jpg

Edit:The attached photos don't show up, not sure why

www.makemkv.com

Drive collection, flashing request and ripping machine

Drive collection, flashing request and ripping machine

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Re: Drive collection, flashing request and ripping machine

Re: Drive collection, flashing request and ripping machine

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